Review of Russell Kirk On America: How to Understand the Legacy of 1776
Russell Kirk (1918-1994), a pillar of the conservative movement, wrote The Roots of American Order in the lead-up to America’s bicentennial in 1976. President Ronald Reagan awarded Kirk with the Presidential Citizens Medal in 1989. He acknowledged that book’s merits when praising Kirk’s “powerful intellect,” which had allowed Kirk to clearly articulate “the values and ancient truths of our civilization.” For Kirk, a return to those truths constituted the only viable path to American renewal.
We face many of the same threats to American order that Kirk faced: religious decline, the growth of the unitary state, the expanding creed of multiculturalism, which now exists in the form of identity politics. In many ways, these threats have intensified. Kirk’s recommendations for the conservation of the American way of life, then, are still applicable and demand a hearing. Thanks to Michael Lucchese, who has compiled some of Kirk’s most trenchant writings in Russell Kirk On America: How to Understand the Legacy of 1776, a new generation can consult Kirk’s buoyant, optimistic prose and rediscover what is worth loving about our country—and how to restore her most lovable features.
A Conservatism of Love
Before you love something, you must know it. In the classic American film Groundhog Day, Phil, Bill Murray’s character, uses cheap gimmicks to win the heart of Rita, played by Andie MacDowell. When Phil lets slip a premature “I love you,” Rita snaps back, “Love me? You don’t even know me!” Kirk both knew and loved America. If we wish to love America—her people, her land, her history—we must know her. This volume is a great starting point for those who want to know America’s essence, to love her better and more truly.
This collection of Kirk’s writings is divided into three parts: American roots, American statesmanship, and American letters. Part one contains learned treatments of America’s founding principles. Parts two and three present lived, historical examples of how conservative thinkers applied conservative principles in the real world, in politics and literature. Among the great statesmen Kirk writes about are John Adams, defender of mixed government and “founder of true conservatism in America.” John Randolph of Roanoke, the proud localist, Virginian, and defender of the Southern conservative ideal of an agrarian society, also receives a chapter.
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